On Monday, one of the Boeing 747s used by Obama and an F-16 jet circled the Statue of Liberty at the start of the work day, startling workers in lower Manhattan who feared a nightmarish replay of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A perfect storm of idiocy led to a frightening 9/11 flashback for thousands of New Yorkers Monday when a jumbo jet and an F-16 fighter jet buzzed lower Manhattan without warning.

A "furious" Mayor Bloomberg denounced the dunces who dreamed up the stunt - and the NYPD officials and bureaucrats who never told him about it.

By day's end, an obscure City Hall deputy named Marc Mugnos, who makes $60,000 a year, was taking the fall for not telling Bloomberg that the low-flying planes were coming. He was reprimanded.

But there was plenty of blame to go around.

Louis Caldera, the director of the White House military office who sent Air Force One and the fighter jet on an "aerial photo mission," got slammed by an angry President Obama.

"I approved a mission over New York," Caldera said in a hastily prepared statement. "I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused."

Obama was not on the flight.

Sources said the chief reason for the panic-inducing flight was to create souvenir pictures of Air Force One flying over the Statue of Liberty to be given out - like a presidential tie clip - to family, friends or supporters.

Caldera did not state a reason for the "mission" in his apology, but he insisted that "federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey."

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said the department was told of the "aerial photo mission" last Thursday but was ordered to stay quiet about it. But they did alert 911 operators at 7 a.m. to tell callers it was an authorized military mission, he said.

Bloomberg said he found out that his city was being buzzed by planes when his BlackBerry began buzzing with complaints.

"I'm annoyed - furious is a better word - that I wasn't told," the mayor said. "If I had known about it, I would have called them right away and asked them not to."

The planes appeared on the horizon around 10 a.m. and sent a chill through the city.

Flying in as low as 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet above New York City, they circled the Statue of Liberty before flying over Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey.

Before they vanished, hundreds of frightened people had jammed emergency phone lines, and thousands of terrified people evacuated from buildings in the city and across the river in New Jersey.

"I was crying and praying to God to forgive me my sins because I thought I was going to get killed," said Kathleen Filandro, who fled from 1New York Plaza when she spotted the planes.

"It's like someone coming up to you, sticking a gun to your head for 15 seconds, walking away and hearing 20 minutes later it was an undercover cop posing for a photo," said Wall Street worker Bill Privett.

"I am still shaking," he said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs appeared taken aback as reporters peppered him with questions about the incident.

"I have no information beyond what I saw" on news reports, Gibbs said at his afternoon press conference.